National Center for Historical Memory

The National Centre for Historical Memory (NCHM) is a national and public entity attached to the Administrative Department for Social Prosperity (DSP) in Colombia.

History

The NCHM was created by the Law 1448/2011, also called the Law of Victims and Land Restitution.^[1] The NCHM is in charge of contributing to the State´s duty of memory regarding the violations committed during the Colombian armed conflict. Also, it helps on the comprehensive reparation and the right to the truth to which the victims and the entire society are entitled.^[2]

The Centre produces public information available for everyone interested, through museum and educational activities that enrich the knowledge of the social and political history of Colombia. In 2021, the NCHM will inaugurate the Colombia’s National Museum of Memory, a platform for the dialogue and articulation of plural memories of the armed conflict that guarantees the inclusion of different actors and populations and contributes to the comprehensive reparation, historical clarification, guaranties of non-repetition and the construction of a sustainable peace.

Deemed to be very close to the Colombian government and the Armed Forces, the Centre was excluded in 2020 from the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience (which brings together more than 200 museums and memorials in over 60 countries). According to associations of victims of the conflict and historians, the center carries out "negationist" work by reducing the armed conflict to a struggle between the State and "terrorists.^[3]

The government approved the so-called "veterans' law," which provides that a space in the National Memory Museum be dedicated "to displaying to the public the life stories of veterans of the public force, especially highlighting their courageous actions, their sacrifice and their contribution to the general welfare.

The director of the organization, Darío Acevedo, resigned on July 7, 2022, following a complaint filed against him by the Special Jurisdiction for Peace for having altered documents, when he did not have the right to do so, in order to conceal the role of paramilitarism in the conflict. Darío AcevedoHe faced several controversies and was criticized by victims' associations who accused him of denial. In particular, he signed a controversial agreement with José Félix Lafaurie, president of the Colombian Federation of Cattle Breeders (FEDEGAN), to highlight the role of cattle breeders in the conflict, while FEDEGAN has often been criticized for financing paramilitary groups and opposing reparations to victims through land restitution.^[4]

Organization

To fulfill its mandates and strategic objectives, the NCHM is divided into four large areas:

Construction of Historical Memory Directorate
National Museum of Memory Directorate
Human Rights Archive Directorate
Truth Agreements Directorate

One of its main objectives is the contribution to the clarification of the facts, the culprits and the conditions that made the armed conflict possible, as well as the institutional, political and social dynamics that unleashed and degraded the conflict.

Also, the NCHM works to:

Consolidate the role of memory as a right and public patrimony.
Dignify the victims and clarify the violent acts committed during the armed conflict.
Plan, construct and deliver to the country the National Museum of Memory as a place that dignifies the victims and promotes a culture respectful of human rights.

Reports published

2008

Trujillo: A tragedy that Never Ceases

2009

El Salado: That War was not Ours
Memories in Wartime
Toolbox: Recall and Narrate the Conflict

2010

Bojayá: War Without Limits
La Rochela: Memoirs of a Crime Against Justice
The Bahía Portete Massacre: Wayuu Women in the Spotlight
The Disputed Land
Memories of Dispossession and Peasant Resistance in the Caribbean Coast (1960 - 2010)

2011

Women and War: Victims and Resistance in the Colombian Caribbean
Women Who Make History: Earth, Body and Policy in the Colombian Caribbean
San Carlos: Memories of Exodus in War
The Invisible Footprint of War: Forced Displacement in the Comuna 13
The Unarmed Order. The resistance of the Workers' Association Peasants of Carare
To Silence Democracy. The Massacres of Remedios and Segovia 1982-1997
El Tigre Massacre: Reconstruction of Historical Narrative in the Valle del Guaméz - Putumayo

2012

El Placer: Women, Coca and War in the Bajo Putumayo
“Our life has been our struggle”. Memory and Resistance in the Indigenous Cauca
Justice and Peace: Judicial Truth or Historical Truth?
Law of Justice and Peace: The Silences and the Forgetfulness of Truth
Justice and Peace: Lands and Territories from the Paramilitary Perspective

2013

“Basta Ya!” Colombia: Memories of War and Dignity. This document gives an account of 50 years of armed conflict in Colombia, revealing the enormous magnitude, ferocity and degradation of war and the serious consequences and impact on the civilian population.^[5]
Guerrilla Forces and Civilian Population. Path of the FARC 1949 - 2013
A Kidnapped Society
Agrarian Policies and Land Reform in Colombia: Sketch of an Institutional Memory
Challenges for Reintegration: Approaches to Gender, Age and Ethnicity

2014

Remember to Repair. The Massacres of Matal of Flor Amarillo and Corocito in Arauca
Archive of grave violations to Human Rights. Elements for Public Policy
Masters and Farmers: Land, Power, Violence in Valle del Cauca
Putumayo: The Maelstrom of Rubber Plantations
Notebook of Damages Caused by the Violence
Truth Agreements Directorate (TAD) Reports
New Scenarios of Armed Conflict and Violence. Panorama of post-agreements with Paramilitaries of Caribe Region, Department of Antioquia and Department of Choco
New Scenarios of Armed Conflict and Violence. Panorama of post-agreements with Paramilitaries of Northeast and Middle Magdalena, Eastern Plains, Southeast and Bogota
Make War and Kill Politics
Enforced Disappearance

2015

Overview I contributed to the truth
Annihilate the difference
The legacy of the absent. Leaders and important people in the history of El Salado
The word and silence
A journey through the historical memory
Disarmament, demobilization and reintegration
Del ñame espino al calabazo
Series: A displaced nation
- A displaced nation. National report of the displacement in Colombia
- Razed villages. Memories of the displacement in El Castillo (Meta)
- Licensed to move: Massacres and reconfiguration territorial in Tibú, Catatumbo
- Crossing the border: Memories of the exodus towards Venezuela. The case of the Arauca River
Primer: Criminal law and war
Quintín Lame: first indigenous guerrilla of Latin America
Roads for memory
Toolbox for Managers of Human Rights Archives
Buenaventura: A Port Without Community
Corporal Texts of Cruelty: Historical Memory and Forensic Anthropology
Narratives of Life and Memory
Memory, Territory and Peasant Struggles
Lucho Arango: The Advocate of Artisanal Fishing
That Day the Violence Arrived by Canoe…
Historical Memory from the Territorial Sphere
Communicate During the Conflict, Memoires of Eduardo Estrada

2016

Crimes that do not prescribe
Petroleum, coca, territorial dispossession and social organization in Putumayo
Pogue: the memory made of songs
Social cleansing. Limpieza social. Una violencia mal nombrada (Spanish)
Right to justice as a guarantee of non-repetition
Memories of a forgotten massacre
La maldita tierra (Spanish)
La justicia demanda memoria (Spanish)
Esa mina llevaba mi nombre (Spanish)
Land and rural conflicts
Granada. Memories of war, resistance and reconstruction
Until you find them. The drama of enforced disappearance in Colombia
Cartillas: Desde el Carare, la niñez y la juventud siembra cultura de paz (Spanish)

2017

The hidden war: landmines and explosive remnants in Colombia
Grupos armados posdesmovilización (Spanish) - Armed groups that emerged after the demobilization
Architecture, memory and reconciliation
Tomas y ataques guerrilleros (1965 - 2013) (Spanish) - (1965-2013) guerrilla attacks
Herramienta Metodológica del Monumento Sonoro por la Memoria (Spanish)
Travesía por la memoria: Ruta metodológica para la reconstrucción de memoria histórica con niños, niñas y adolescentes (Spanish) - Journey through memory: Methodological path for the reconstruction of historical memory with children and adolescents

References

^ "LEY 1448 DE 2011" (in Spanish). secretariasenado.gov.co. Archived from the original on 2015-12-22. Retrieved 2015-12-11.
^ "DECRETO NÚMERO 4803 DE 2011" (PDF) (in Spanish). presidencia.gov.co. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2015-12-11.
^ "Accord de paix en Colombie : Le gouvernement sape le travail de mémoire". Archived from the original on 2021-12-13. Retrieved 2022-07-13.
^ "En medio de varias polémicas, Darío Acevedo renunció como director del Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica - Cuarto de Hora". 8 July 2022. Archived from the original on 8 July 2022. Retrieved 13 July 2022.
^ Historical Memory Group (2013). "Enough Already!" Colombia: Memories of War and Dignity (PDF) (in Spanish). The National Center for Historical Memory’s (NCHM). ISBN 978-958-57608-4-4. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2015-12-11. Retrieved 2015-12-11.

External links

[LEY_1448_DE_2011-1] "LEY 1448 DE 2011" (in Spanish). secretariasenado.gov.co. Archived from the original on 2015-12-22. Retrieved 2015-12-11.

[DECRETONÚMERO4803DE2011-2] "DECRETO NÚMERO 4803 DE 2011" (PDF) (in Spanish). presidencia.gov.co. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2015-12-11.

[3] "Accord de paix en Colombie : Le gouvernement sape le travail de mémoire". Archived from the original on 2021-12-13. Retrieved 2022-07-13.

[4] "En medio de varias polémicas, Darío Acevedo renunció como director del Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica - Cuarto de Hora". 8 July 2022. Archived from the original on 8 July 2022. Retrieved 13 July 2022.

[Enough_Already!-5] Historical Memory Group (2013). "Enough Already!" Colombia: Memories of War and Dignity (PDF) (in Spanish). The National Center for Historical Memory’s (NCHM). ISBN 978-958-57608-4-4. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2015-12-11. Retrieved 2015-12-11.

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